Malakai knew this man. He didn’t even have to turn.
Despite the smile, there was no mistaking the truth of who he was, shrewd, calculating, and dangerously manipulative.
But right now, only one fact stood above all others. And that fact was the most important to Malakai.
He was Khana’s husband.
It was the same Khana who now stood behind him, biting down on her lips, visibly tense.
This time, the question had been directed towards Malakai. Everyone waited for his response.
But it never came.
Varnel was a man neck deep in the politics of the Sanguine Clan. He could dissect a person’s entire character with just a few exchanged words. That was how he became the shrewd, manipulative figure he was today.
Which was why Malakai was utterly sure, there was no way he didn’t know his wife.
In fact, he probably knew her better than anyone.
He knew what she had done.
And now, he was trying to cover it up.
‘A trap.’
Those were trap questions. Malakai didn’t know where they would lead… but he wasn’t about to find out.
He stayed silent, letting the seconds stretch long and uncomfortable.
Varnel’s smile froze.
Did he… just get ignored?
He opened his mouth to speak. “Y—”
“Why were you attacked.”
Drennos’s icy voice cut across the hall, filled with authority.
He stared at Malakai with a narrowed gaze. While the other Pulses were competing, vying for the title of heir, they were still figures of power and authority in their own right.
For someone like Malakai, a discarded failure, to ignore a Pulse…
Drennos wouldn’t let that slide.
The people turned their eyes back to Malakai, waiting for his reaction.
Silence.
Malakai still hadn’t spoken. He hadn’t even acknowledged Drennos’s words.
Drennos leaned forward on his throne. The seat beneath him trembled under the weight of his aura.
“I will not repeat myself, boy.”
His killing intent began to bleed into the air, thick and suffocating, his eyes locked on Malakai, waiting, just waiting, for him to ignore him again.
The few seconds that followed stretched like an eternity. The hall went completely still.
Drennos, the firstborn of Othric. A Bloom. He was the one currently with the most support in the clan. The most power. The closest among them to the seat of Sovereign.
In a clan where power was law, even the other Pulses treaded carefully around him.
And now… a barely evolved child had blatantly ignored him? In this hall? Before the very pillars of the clan?
The disrespect… would not go unpunished.
Drennos’s aura began to rise, about to explode and saturate the chamber, when a thick, calm voice rang out.
“Malakai.”
As the Blood Sovereign spoke, the tension shattered instantly as the whispers died down.
Drennos narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He had no choice but to stop.
The Sovereign had spoken.
“Yes, Sovereign,” Malakai finally said, his voice steady.
The Sovereign’s gaze bore into him.
“You evolved… despite your nodes being broken. How?”
‘Finally.’
Malakai clenched his fists, steadying his heart.
The gazes of the Pulses and Highbloods instantly sharpened. Once more, the full weight of the hall’s attention focused on him.
This was the question.
The one they had all truly come for.
How had Malakai evolved?
Meanwhile, Malakai’s mind raced through a storm of thoughts.
‘It finally came.’
He had known the question would come. He had been waiting for it since he stepped into the hall.
It was the one that would decide everything, his future. His life.
He couldn’t afford to answer it wrongly.
‘I have to be careful.’
That was his greatest concern.
Nearly everyone in the hall was a Bloom. And seated above them all… was a Zenith.
He was surrounded by living lie detectors.
Any lie, even a hint of one, would be torn apart before the words fully left his mouth.
Which meant… he had to shape his words.
Not lies.
But not the truth either. Malakai couldn’t afford anyone learning about the Essence. He would be turned into a lab rat.
A second passed and Malakai finally spoke.
“After I entered the pit… I just kept fighting. Kept killing the darkness creatures I encountered. In the process of fighting for my life, I overused the devil’s fruit until I lost consciousness. When I woke up… I realized my body could now hold Vita.”
The silence that followed was sharp. Malakai could feel it, the intense scrutiny behind every gaze, every breath.
They dissected each word, trying to find the lie within.
But there was none.
Malakai had been sure to make it airtight.
The Highbloods began to murmur among themselves, clearly unconvinced.
It was too simple.
Just overloading your body with devil’s fruits? That wouldn’t make anyone evolve. That was simply suicide.
It didn’t make any sense. Malakai was hiding something.
They knew it.
But none of them could prove it.
And more importantly, none of them could ask, because the Sovereign had already spoken again.
“Hmm. Interesting.”
His deep voice echoed calmly through the hall.
“Well, how you achieved it… is irrelevant. What matters is that you evolved. I will expect great things from you.”
The Sovereign leaned back slightly.
“That will be all.”
The expressions of the Pulses and Highbloods froze.
That would be all?
They had come all the way here, gathered in full force, only for the Sovereign to end it like this?
No interrogations?
Just a few words and done?
Their expressions morphed into disbelief.
But before their thoughts could spiral further, they were suddenly interrupted by Malakai speaking.
“I would like to rejoin the clan youth’s training sessions,” he said, bowing deeper.
Every gaze, Pulses, Highbloods… even the Veins, narrowed.
The clan’s youth training was given to every Sanguine from an early age, even before their evolution.
And once evolution was achieved, the training only grew more rigorous and advanced, tailored to match their capabilities. But what was most important was the resources the clan poured into it. If used right, one could grow stronger faster.
But in the past, Malakai had been forced to stop. The moment he failed to evolve, he had been cut off and cast aside.
And now, he wanted back in.
But before his words could even settle, a feminine voice rang out.